Egypt’s top diplomat made an emotional appeal Thursday for an urgent increase in humanitarian aid going into Gaza by land, even as an aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food was on its way to the enclave, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are on the brink of starvation.
The push to get food in by sea — along with a recent campaign of airdrops into isolated northern Gaza — highlighted the international community’s frustration with the growing humanitarian crisis and with Israel’s restrictions that have prevented more aid getting in by land. Australia announced early Friday it would funding to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians and pledged additional money to UNICEF to provide urgent services in Gaza.
A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, the United Nations has warned, and the territory’s Health Ministry says more than 31,314 Palestinians have been killed. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in southern Israel during the Hamas-led incursion on Oct. 7 that sparked the war. Around 250 people were abducted, and Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages.
Currently:
— Australia resumes funding for UNRWA and pledges more Gaza aid.
— Palestinian leader Abbas appoints his longtime adviser as prime minister in the face of calls for reform.
— The U.S. sanctions three Israeli West Bank settlers and their outposts for violence against Palestinians.
— Top Democrat Chuck Schumer calls for new elections in Israel, saying Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
AUSTRALIA RESUMES FUNDING FOR UNRWA AND PROMISES MORE AID TO GAZA
Australia will restore funding to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, weeks after the agency lost hundreds of millions of dollars in support following Israeli allegations that some of its Gaza-based staff participated in the Oct. 7 attack.
The Australian government also pledged Friday to increase aid for the besieged enclave, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressing horror at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Australia’s move follows Sweden, the European Commission and Canada in reinstating funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which had seen its international funding frozen while the allegations were investigated.
“The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organization,” Wong told reporters Friday in Adelaide while she announced the aid package.
Wong also pledged an additional 4 million Australian dollars ($2.6 million) to UNICEF to provide urgent services in Gaza, and a C17 Globemaster plane will also deliver defense force parachutes to help with the U.S. led airdropping of humanitarian supplies into the enclave, which is on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.
US PROPOSES UN RESOLUTION TYING GAZA CEASE-FIRE TO HOSTAGE RELEASE
UNITED NATIONS — The U.S. has circulated the final draft of a U.N. Security Council resolution that would support international efforts to bring “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war. That would be part of a deal for the release of hostages taken captive during Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
No time has been set for a Security Council vote, and the text could still be changed.
The U.S. circulated its initial draft Feb. 19, a day before it vetoed an Arab-backed and widely supported Security Council resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire. The U.S. said that would interfere with negotiations on a deal to free the hostages.
It was the third U.S. veto of a Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and has put the Biden administration at odds with much of the world, including many allies.
The latest U.S. draft is the fifth version of the text and makes some key changes.
The initial draft would have underscored that a temporary cease-fire “as soon as practicable” required the release of all hostages. It also said Israel’s planned ground offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where some 1.5 million Palestinians have sought safety, “should not proceed under current circumstances.”
The final draft eliminates the word ”temporary” and says “the window of opportunity created by any cease-fire” should be used to intensify diplomatic efforts to create conditions “for a sustainable cessation of hostilities and lasting peace.”
It also drops the tough statement that Israel’s offensive in Rafah shouldn’t go ahead. Instead, the resolution would emphasize the Security Council’s “concern” that a ground offensive into Rafah “would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement, potentially into neighboring countries.” It says that “would have serious implications for regional peace and security.”
CLEARING THE DEBRIS FROM GAZA WILL TAKE YEARS, UN OFFICIALS SAY
UNITED NATIONS – U.N. humanitarian officials are warning that it will take years to clear away the nearly 23 million metric tons of debris from the destruction of buildings across Gaza and get rid of unexploded ordnance.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric delivered the assessment Thursday, pointing to Israeli airstrikes after Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel that have destroyed residential buildings as well as other property.
In January, experts said the Israeli military campaign ranks among the most destructive in recent history. In just over two months, researchers said the offensive has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II.
According to an analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data at that time, Israel’s offensive had likely either damaged or destroyed over two-thirds of all structures in northern Gaza and a quarter of buildings in the southern area of Khan Younis. Since then, the offensive and airstrikes have continued. Achim Steiner, the head of the U.N. Development Program which has staff in Gaza, told reporters Wednesday that when the war ends, “it will take years, if not decades to reconstruct Gaza.”
He said UNDP is focusing on trying to develop early recovery projects for when the fighting stops that will revive people’s livelihoods so they can start earning some income, start rebuilding essential infrastructure to supply water and electricity and provide sanitation, and begin to clear the enormous amount of debris and unexploded ordnance.
DANISH OFFICIAL SAYS THAT DESPITE ACCUSATIONS, THERE’S CURRENTLY NO GOOD ALTERNATIVE TO UNRWA
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark said Thursday it has paid its contribution of 105 million kroner ($15.4 million) to the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians, weeks after the agency lost hundreds of millions of dollars in funding following Israeli accusations against some of its staff in Gaza.
The accusations come after years of tensions between Israel and the agency known as UNRWA over its work in Gaza, where it employs roughly 13,000 people.
Israel has accused 12 of UNRWA’s employees of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that set off the war. In response, more than a dozen countries suspended funding to UNRWA, amounting to about $450 million — almost half its budget for the year.
Dan Jørgensen, Denmark’s minister for development cooperation, said that “there is currently no alternative to UNRWA in Gaza.”
“The accusations against UNRWA have pointed out a number of organizational weaknesses around UNRWA’s control mechanisms,” he said. “In the longer term, it will be absolutely crucial that important reform measures are initiated in the organization.”
In the same statement, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen described UNWRA as “an indispensable player right now.”
“It is probably too much to hope that all the weak points of the organization have disappeared, but the management has initiated a number of measures to restore trust,” he said.
The U.N. has condemned “the abhorrent alleged acts” and fired nine of the accused UNRWA workers, who include teachers and a social worker. Two are reportedly dead, and the last is still being identified.
Denmark’s announcement follows similar decisions from Sweden, the European Union and Canada, the Danish government said.
GAZA’S HEALTH MINISTRY SAYS ISRAEL’S ASSAULT ON THE TERRITORY HAS KILLED 31,314 PEOPLE
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that Israel’s assault on the territory has killed 31,314 Palestinians and wounded more than 73,100.
The ministry says around two-thirds of the dead are women and children and that the real overall toll is higher because bodies are buried under the rubble or in areas that medics can’t access amid Israel’s ground offensive and bombardment. The ministry’s count does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Israel blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. The Israeli military says it has killed over 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.
ISRAELI POLICE SAY MILITANT STABS MAN AT A HIGHWAY REST STOP IN SOUTHERN ISRAEL
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli police say a man was stabbed and critically wounded in a militant attack at a highway rest stop in southern Israel on Thursday. The police say the attacker was subdued, without providing further information on his condition or identity.
The attack came amid heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began this week.
The Hamas militant group has called on Palestinians to attack Israelis during the holy month. On Wednesday, a Palestinian stabbed two security forces at a checkpoint south of Jerusalem before being shot and killed.
Israeli police say at least 3,000 security personnel will be deployed across Jerusalem during the first Friday prayers of Ramadan, where tens of thousands of Palestinians are expected to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam.
The site is the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the Jewish temples in antiquity. It has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Violence has surged in the occupied West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza.
EGYPT’S TOP DIPLOMAT MAKES AN URGENT APPEAL TO INCREASE GAZA AID THROUGH LAND CROSSINGS
CAIRO — Egypt’s top diplomat on Thursday appealed for an urgent increase in the amount of humanitarian aid going into besieged Gaza through land crossings, adding that people in the devastated territory cannot wait until a U.S. planned temporary port to be built for sea shipments.
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry spoke as U.S. military representatives were expected in Israel this week to further coordinate a planned U.S. floating pier that will be built off the coast of Gaza. The United States and other countries have also been airdropping food into northern Gaza in recent weeks to help alleviate the crisis.
But aid groups said air drops and bringing sea shipments are far less efficient and effective than bringing in food by land routes, which Israel has severely restricted.
Shoukry said the sea port is “expected to be completed in two months.”
“What shall we do during those two months? Shall more children continue to die until this port is constructed,” he asked during a joint press conference with his Spanish counterpart José Manuel Albares in Cairo.
President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. military last week to set up a temporary port off the coast of Gaza to carve out a sea route for food and other aid. Pentagon has said the construction of a massive floating pier will take weeks and require as many as 1,000 US troops.
“We should be realistic in dealing with the situation and we cannot afford any delay,” said Shourky. “What we have at our disposal now are land crossings.”
He insisted that Israel should be held accountable for restricting the passage of aid to Gaza, urging it to allow relief assistance through all six border crossings with the strip.